Abstract
Background: Pain assessment and management are essential parts of nursing care and two of the most fundamental patient rights. It is unethical to let a patient suffer from pain without taking appropriate measures to relief his or her pain. Objective: This study aims to explore the ICU staff nurse’s knowledge and attitudes towards pain and pain management at King Saud Medical City (KSMC) in Saudi Arabia. The pain management knowledge and attitudes of ICU nurses at KSMC has not been explored in previous research. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional design was utilized using a self-reporting questionnaire tool to obtain information from ICU nurses about their knowledge and attitudes towards pain and pain management. The questionnaire was distributed to 289 nurses employed in King Saud Medical City (KSMC), which is one of the biggest tertiary hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 204 nurses responded to the questionnaire (71% response rate). Results and conclusion: The results showed sever lack of knowledge and poor attitudes among ICU nurses towards pain management when dealing with ICU patients, 60% of the knowledge questions were answered incorrectly by more than 50% of the nursing staff participated in the study, 65% of attitude questions were answered incorrectly by more than 50% of the nursing staff. This study has uncovered both knowledge and attitudes gaps among ICU nurses.
Highlights
Pain assessment and management are essential parts of nursing care and two of the most fundamental patient rights
The results showed sever lack of knowledge and poor attitudes among Intensive Care Units (ICUs) nurses towards pain management when dealing with ICU patients, 60% of the knowledge questions were answered incorrectly by more than 50% of the nursing staff participated in the study, 65% of attitude questions were answered incorrectly by more than 50% of the nursing staff
The results showed lack of knowledge among nurses regarding pain management when dealing with ICU patients. 60% of the knowledge questions were answered incorrectly by more than 50% of the nursing staff participated in the study
Summary
Pain assessment and management are essential parts of nursing care and two of the most fundamental patient rights. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations [1] asserted that patients have the right for their pain to be assessed and managed in a way that is appropriate and effective. Effective and accurate pain management requires efficient knowledge, positive attitudes and effective skills of clinical decision-making about pain [7]. Nurses gain their beliefs and perceptions about pain from the profound knowledge they have, which may result in unfavorable attitude consequences towards pain management by the nurses if the knowledge they have is distorted, incomplete, or incorrect. A lot of pain-related issues may lead to inadequate pain management,
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